On this day in Yorkshire 1976

David Clay

Uniformed patrols are out in the Wakefield, Huddersfield and Halifax areas to catch hosepipe ban dodgers.

“So far only a few people have had to be warned and we have not yet had to prosecute anyone,” the Yorkshire Water Authority’s south wester supply engineer Mr. Robert Antrim said yesterday.

The six patrolmen make their rounds at night and at weekends to see if hoses are being used for washing cars or watering private gardens.

Throughout the country, angry householders have been complaining to water authorities over the ban, for while gardeners watch their lawns turn brown and their flowers droop, local authorities and sports clubs are still able to turn the taps full on to water pitches and gardens.

The water authorities say they are hampered by the lack of Government legislation to curb the wastage of water 0 except by private householders.

South West Yorkshire has been named as the area most at risk during the drought in the yorkshire Water Authority’s region.

“The public has been responding magnificently,” said Mr. Antrim. “For 14 weeks we have had a reduced level of consumption because of voluntary water economies.”

But the YWA is taking no chances, with emergency plans already being worked on for putting up 18,000 standpipes if necessary.

It would take until October for them to be ready for use because more than 250,000 stop taps would first have to be turned off.

By that time, said Mr. Antrim, more water would be available to the division because of two pipelines being laid, one from Garforth’s River Derwent suppy to Castleford and the other from Chellow Heights, Bradford to Dewsbury.

But nearly 1,000,000 people in South Wales are to have their water cut off for 12 hours a day from next Monday.

If the rain did not come industry could have its water cut back by 50 per cent.